{"id":14632,"date":"2013-10-04T09:49:08","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T13:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=14632"},"modified":"2013-10-04T09:49:08","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T13:49:08","slug":"how-gop-extortion-is-rooted-in-southern-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2013\/10\/04\/how-gop-extortion-is-rooted-in-southern-slavery\/","title":{"rendered":"How GOP Extortion Is Rooted in Southern Slavery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alternet<\/em> has the Consortium News<\/em> story How GOP Extortion Is Rooted in Southern Slavery<\/strong><\/a> by Robert Parry.<\/p>\n

The Federalists despised the concept of states\u2019 rights (as enshrined in the Articles of Confederation) and believed in centralizing power in the federal government, albeit with a system of checks and balances to restrain ill-advised decision-making, but with few other limits on what elected representatives could do for the nation\u2019s well-being.<\/p>\n

That is why \u2013 in both the Preamble and in Article I, Section 8 (the so-called \u201cenumerated powers\u201d) \u2013 the Framers included language giving Congress the authority to \u201cprovide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States\u201d and \u201cto make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

As historian Jada Thacker  has written, \u201cThe Constitution was never intended to \u2018provide limited government,\u2019 and furthermore it did not do so. \u2026 This is not a matter of opinion, but of literacy. If we want to discover the truth about the scope of power granted to the federal government by the Constitution, all we have to do is read what it says.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the malleable phrase \u201cgeneral Welfare\u201d and the so-called \u201celastic clause\u201d for passing all \u201cnecessary and proper\u201d laws, Thacker notes that \u201cthe type, breadth and scope of federal legislation became unchained. \u2026 Taken together, these clauses \u2013 restated in the vernacular \u2013 flatly announce that \u2018Congress can make any law it feels is necessary to provide for whatever it considers the general welfare of the country.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As further proof to the point, my fractured High School learning about the Constitution tells me that the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments) was insisted upon by the states in order for the Constitution to be accepted.  The states (or the people) insisted that their individual rights be explicitly protected from the powers given to the Federal government in the main part of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Of course the book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong<\/b><\/a> by James W. Loewen puts some doubt in my mind about what I learned in school about history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alternet has the Consortium News story How GOP Extortion Is Rooted in Southern Slavery by Robert Parry. The Federalists despised the concept of states\u2019 rights (as enshrined in the Articles of Confederation) and believed in centralizing power in the federal government, albeit with a system of checks and balances to restrain ill-advised decision-making, but with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14633,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14632\/revisions\/14633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}